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Hi:
Up until now, I have been using T-Mobile ever since the XDA came out.
Used a "visorphone" before that. I do NOT use T-Mobile's Internet access (T-zones) ever since I got hit with a $180+ overage charge the first month I used it.
So.
Here is my issue:
Starting a few months ago, I noticed that, even though I do NOT use T-Mobile for any Internet access (I call up my own ISP instead from the XDA), T-Mobile are charging me something like $.50 for every email sent or received from the XDA using my own ISP. I suppose they monitor the traffic or something. When I protested that they shouldn't charge me for anything Internet-related, only the minutes used to call my ISP, they told me basically that they don't give a damn what I think, and that I will continue to be charged $.50 for every email. They show up on my bill as "e-note" to the phone number "500."
I think that's ridiculous and possibly illegal since it doesn't involve their servers or their services at all, but I don't have the energy to deal with their untrained "Wireless Data Group." It would take years to explain this to them. Just getting them on the phone took over 1 hour. This is partly a warning post, that this is what T-Mobile is doing, and we should know about it. So, I am looking into switching to AT&T.
My questions for anyone reading this:
1) anyone else have that billing issue with t-mobile?
2) is at&t any better? do they charge for internet traffic even if you haven't signed up for their services?
3) i don't think i have simlock issues, the unlock util from this site says that it's already unlocked. rom is 4.00.21 ENG, radio stack 6.24.00
from yorch.net.
4) is there anything i should know? won't this t-mobile build of "windows mobile 2003" rom work with at&t ?
any info appreciated, you can email thomas at pullen.com (removed the @ for the spam bots).
thanks!
TMO is pretty bad, iv experienced their levels of ignorance too, but once in a while, u can incounter sumone who knows alot about what they do
you should have never used tzones (if it wasnt unlimited) for transfering big amounts of data, thats why u got charged so much, for going over the allowd data amount
when connecting to your own ISP, are u connecting using THEIR # ? ... if so, then i dont know where TMO gets these ideas 4 charging u extra + the phone call :roll:
to unlock u need to go back to a 2002 rom, with the unlock software
ur build will work, but it would be better to switch to 4.00.05 , since u wont need all the useless TMO apps and what not
Hey tpullen,
Sorry to hear about your terrible time with T-Mobile.
Q: What type of plan do you have with T-Mobile?
If its only a voice plan with no data the .50 sounds about right and will be the same if you move over to AT&T. As a matter of fact AT&T's data charges are higher.
It doesn't matter that you're calling your own ISP, the fact still remains you're sending/receiving data on a voice only plan. :wink:
HTH
thanks
hey:
thanks for the replies. to answer your questions:
i had the t-mobile 3,000 minutes for $49 plan. it is only free long distance for the southeast u.s.; i think it's called a 'neighborhood' plan.
no data at all in my plan; i would call my own isp and surf the web and check email. only about 3 months ago t-mobile started charging me to check email, but not for the web. my complaint is that i am using my own isp, and the call comes out of my minutes. yes, it's sending data with a voice-only plan, but hey! i have a dial-up phone line, nothing fancy, a land line in my house. it's voice-only. if i plug a modem into my home phone line and call my isp, should i expect to get a bill from my phone company for every email i look at? to my way of thinking, and anyone is free to disagree, if i'm not USING your services then i don't want to PAY for your services. unless it is a t-mobile email, web, or proxy server i'm talking to, i don't expect to pay t-mobile. the minutes were already being deducted from my available minutes. that's all i should have to pay.
i don't think that's so outrageous.
i did unlock my phone with the xda dev build, then went back to the same tmobile windows mobile 2003 build. i wasn't sure if the xda "stays unlocked" once you unlock it and then put a new rom on, but it does.
now i have an at&t sim, and it works well enough, but the sort-of-funny thing is that you apparantly can NOT just call your own isp with at&t.
i can't seem to get a connection to work. so i don't know. maybe i will stay with at&t since they, according to their sales literature anyway, have a data network that's like 3 times faster than t-mobile's data network.
of course it's more $ for them.
whatever the case, i have 30 days to try at&t with no obligation, cancel any time, owe them nothing. everyone has that option right now, in fact, due to the new ftc "local number port" thing happening.
i'll let ya'll know how it goes if i stick with at&t. i can always stay with t-mobile, but i'm not sure if that's a good idea.
Re: thanks
tpullen said:
maybe i will stay with at&t since they, according to their sales literature anyway, have a data network that's like 3 times faster than t-mobile's data network. of course it's more $ for them.
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Sounds like you're talking about the EDGE service. Yeah, like 4 times the cost of T-Mobile's unlimited plan. I think I'll stick to the cheaper slower service.
tpullen said:
whatever the case, i have 30 days to try at&t with no obligation, cancel any time, owe them nothing. everyone has that option right now, in fact, due to the new ftc "local number port" thing happening.
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Click to collapse
Owe them nothing?! You might want to read that literature again. You'll not pay a cancellation fee nor an activation fee, but you will owe them for the prorated amount of time you had service, and any other additional fees that you use. This is pretty standard in the wireless industry. So if you go over your prorated minutes for the month, you owe them airtime charges. Happened to me, so just be careful.
bye bye at&t
hi arkhangel:
yes, you are correct:
4. Every new customer gets a 30 day risk free trial. When you purchase a phone and activate service at an AT&T Wireless store or at attwireless.com, you can return your undamaged phone for a refund within the first 30 days and pay only for airtime and usage charges. It’s just one more way we can earn your trust.
so it is not without charge, and thank god i only made one 6-minute call.
as far as the EDGE network goes, it was so-so...i only viewed 2 webpages with it, they loaded pretty much as quickly as with any other data service over the xda...and the funny thing is that it consumed apparantly almost 2 mb to do so.
i am pretty frustrated now, the at&t customer service has been pretty rotten, but t-mobile isn't too great either.
i'm calling verizon next, to compare...
tpullen said:
They show up on my bill as "e-note" to the phone number "500."
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Click to collapse
The phone is programmed to send an SMS to T-Mobile every time you reboot your PPCPE. These show up as e-notes to 500 just as you describe. Compare the timing of your email use vs. the timing of your reboots and see where the e-notes are coming from. I think you can purchase a bundle of a bunch (500?) of SMS messages (aka e-notes) for something like $2.99, so you could cap your cost that way.
You should also be aware that T-Mobile has gone to a flat rate for GPRS at $19.95 for unlimited internet. The comparable plan with AT&T is something like $80.
Coming from WinMO 6.5 HD2, I'm nervous about these 500mb tarrifs for data.
T-Mobile has a 500mb limit, with unlimited browsing.
However the 2 are not seperate, so once you have used 500mb in total, you are restricted to browsing only.
No RRS
No Podcasts
No POP3 email
No Twitter (some apps only)
No Google Maps
No Internet radio (!)
Push mail seems to work, as does Opera for browsing.
The HTC RSS app has no download mananger, so my weekly podcast download is about 80mb, but by the 11th of the month I've already over 500mb, as any minor failure during dowload deletes the file and starts again.
What's your SGS2/Android experience in terms of data usage?
En_croute
i easily rack up 3GB a month
but if you disable data completely, and only do WiFi you should be safe
Apparantly we are in the 5% of users
We are called abusers by TMobile
Asked why a we couldn't buy more data time, I was met with :
a) Ohh, difficult to set up to set that up
b) The masts the masts, think of the masts
c) Abusers spoil the t-mobile experience for everyone else
PAC code here we come.
Hello THREE
I have my phone set up to use Wifi when I am at home and WiFi when I am at work. Obviously I set all my podcasts and High Usage apps to Download during those times (Using Tasker)
Outside of that I generally use about 50MB to 100MB on Google Maps, Email, other general background syncing stuff.
I think if you do all of your major syncing over a WiFi connection (Either yours or your neighbours ) then you will be hard pushed to use 500MB whilst "on the go"
En_croute said:
Apparantly we are in the 5% of users
We are called abusers by TMobile
Asked why a we couldn't buy more data time, I was met with :
a) Ohh, difficult to set up to set that up
b) The masts the masts, think of the masts
c) Abusers spoil the t-mobile experience for everyone else
PAC code here we come.
Hello THREE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming you're in the UK as you mentioned 3...
T-Mobile would never say any of the above answers, you're either
a. Trolling
or
b. Making it up
Claiming T-Mobile weren't willing to take more money off you is borderline laughable.
Have fun with Three, quite possibly the most inept customer serviced network i've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
Edit, just thought i'd add this, if you want details on how to sort out a proper unlimited data package on T-Mobile, PM me.
Actually he really did infer these things!
1. He claimed it would be difficult to set up (programme). I pointed out that as I was on 1gb currently, and the FUP (Browsing only) kicks in after that, it should not be too hard to allow 500mb boosters to be bought ad hoc, or as part of a regular package.
2. He claimed the 5% of users were "ruining the experience" for other customers, hence the 500mb limit. I pointed out that a) if we were all going into FUP, the service would still be "ruined" for the first 1/2 of the month, and b) Why sell media phones when the network is not fit for purpose.
3. And as Orage are selling 750mb & 500mb bolt ons, why can't T-Mobile. He said 5oomb for new customers and 1gb is the maximum, on older tarrifs, and the 3gb tarrif was not available (since Feb 2011).
I was spitting feathers, hence the PAC code comment.
I did consider Three, but went with 1gb data & Flext 35, and will use the first 7 days to asess my data usage under Android during the 7 day cooling off period.
Handset due tomorrow.
I'll PM you, as I have those 7 days....
En_croute
I'll reply here as well so others can see this. If you take out a t-mobile contract with a data booster (those apparently unlimited 5quid ones) call them straight away and say you want to upgrade your data package to web and walk plus for the ENTIRE length of your contract.
They should offer to simply replace your 5 booster with web n walk plus, if they don't, tell them that someone in the t-mobile shop told you it can be done as long as you take it out for the contract duration.
This also will work if you have no data package as well, they'll just charge you the 5 quid a month.
The benefit? HSDPA is not enabled on the standard unlimited boosters, but is on web n walk plus
Hopefully some people can make use of this.
Burko
Even better is WebNWalk Max as the plus is also capped.
All of the above is the reason why I'm also jumping ship to three.
I currently pay T-mobile £40pcm and they want more off me just because I don't think it's fair that they cap my data at 350Kb max.
T-Mob in UK is a joke for data speeds (unless you pay extra on top of your normal tariff price)
So when working out where to go. Make sure you take the extra cost into account and check not only data caps on download amounts but also data caps on speed.
Plus is capped in volume of downloads, not speed. Obviously different people have different data needs, but for me, web n walk plus is more than enough. (with the benefit of not being charged if you go over the limit) there is no"one size fits all" data package, I just thought I'd highlight one option that's available.
Burko
According to O2 I've used 1.99GB As of 23:28 on 12 May 2011 so far this month. Good thing I have unlimited data allowance.
Nomophobia, as in "No mobile phone phobia!" I found this article interesting because, 1. Its definately me. 2. The one chick checks her phone 50 times a day? Please, Im triple that easy!!!!90% of the time im awake, Im on my phone! News, Facebook, bank, XDA, text, 401K, ZumoCast to my home computer, Playstation Network! I can go on forever!
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...our-cellphone-nomophobia-on-the-rise#comments
yep, i got it. and it drags me away from my PC more and more every day as they become more powerful. i mean really, there is not much technology out there that is more handy then a smartphone. i cant read the news for hours on less then 2000mAh on my laptop, but i can on my phone!
and 50 times... i get more then 100 text messages a day, plus 30-50 emails, then phones calls and internet surfing... yeah i def beat her mark of 50. i use my phone as my clock, it would be interesting to see how many times i do turn my screen on. im guessing id be well over 400.
@lroy, I'm probally in the 400+ range also. And speaking of computer, I was just telling guest Sunday, I could not tell you the last time I physically sat at my desk at home or moved that laptop off the coffee table. (She asked could she have it!). The only reason my desktop is powered on is I use ZumoCast when I'm out to access it! Hell, I even program my cable box when I want to see something and I know I will not make it home!
I wanted to bring this back to the front. Last week a friend mentioned she could not take pictures, I replaced 2Gb Card with 16Gb Card for $19.99. Same friend came over and told me she could not send text, told her to delete all of them, fixed! She just now called and asked if her daughter can come over Saturday and I replace her card like I did hers..........This got me to thinking, over the last month or so, I have helped 8+ people with something or another. If your not going to use the features of the smartphone, why spend $600.00? You can still look cool and spend alot less money? And Im not talking about rooting or unlocking, I'm talking about simple, everyday life things to make life simple in which the device was made for?
1. Most of these people did not even know Bank of America had an app to check your bank account? (Members1st Credit Union either?)
2. None knew that you can program your Comcast DVR from your phone?
3. All thought you had to pay $29.99 for hotspot?
4. None knew about Google Music?
5. I tell people about Douphin Browser and they look at me like Im crazy?
6. No one, including my boss who is IT manger knew about Nexflix on smartphone?
Maybe it's me being anal, but you would not get at $2000.00 TV and not know how to use it right? and look at all the phones coming to market now, bigger, faster, larger, etc............. Again, just me!
dsims7_2000 said:
Maybe it's me being anal, but you would not get at $2000.00 TV and not know how to use it right?
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That's US carrier subsidies for you!
Carrier subsidies have f^@k*! up the entire system; $600-$700 devices being sold for $200 or less. People don't value smartphones at all.
Think of it, in reality smartphones cost more than most laptops, televisions and audio equipment etc.
Do people upgrade their TVs every year or two? Heck no! But carrier subsidies allow us to buy brand new phones for $200 every 2 years. And in case of Android phones, wait for 6-to-10 months and some models can be had for $100 or even close to free. Who doesn't like that?
And in turn to make their money, these carriers make us sign contracts and buy expensive data plans even if we don't want to.
I don't know of any other country in the world where they make you buy a data plan if you want to run a smartphone on their network.
You simply buy a phone and buy a plan, that's how it should work.
Lots of people I know in other countries have bought their own phones and run it with a simple voice-only plan. If they need data they pay only for what they use. No $40 data plan forced upon them. I wish our major carriers would adopt this policy.
Heck, I will leave Sprint if something doesn't change soon.
I've been with them for 10 years now and paying $80/month for ****ty service.
I'm waiting to see how its LTE network turns out before resigning any contracts.
DH can $uck it with his unlimited plans!
Ok....rant over! Taking a deep breath now....!
OK, My OP was NOT about data plans and contracts (althought you have some truth), I know people that have had their phone for over 10 years, he** I lost a bet because co-worker has flip Sprint phone with SIM card. That said, it is/was about people buying $600.00+ phones to take pictures and text, PERIOD!!! you can get a free phone for that. If your not going to utilize your smartphone with all it can do, why get it?
As for Data Plans, I have been to..........23 countries in the last 5 years. I took AT&T Tilt, flashed it, VodoPhone SIM from Airport, I'm good. I really only used data twice a day for a few minutes if that. But yes, phone only for your used minutes and what data you uses is subtracted from your minutes, no biggie. But also remember, they don't get the $100.00 up front and 2-year contract, they pay full then pick a plan. (For the record, no matter what phone I had, its not working in South Korea with WCDMA!)
dsims7_2000 said:
OK, My OP was NOT about data plans and contracts (althought you have some truth), That said, it is/was about people buying $600.00+ phones to take pictures and text, PERIOD!!! you can get a free phone for that. If your not going to utilize your smartphone with all it can do, why get it?
As for Data Plans, I have been to..........23 countries in the last 5 years. I took AT&T Tilt, flashed it, VodoPhone SIM from Airport, I'm good. I really only used data twice a day for a few minutes if that. But yes, phone only for your used minutes and what data you uses is subtracted from your minutes, no biggie. But also remember, they don't get the $100.00 up front and 2-year contract, they pay full then pick a plan. (For the record, no matter what phone I had, its not working in South Korea with WCDMA!)
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Click to collapse
Yeah, sorry about that, didn't mean to hijack your thread.
I would gladly buy my phone at full price if they allowed me the freedom of choosing my plan. But they don't. So I end up paying $100-$200 for the phone and then $1800 over the next 24 months in service charges.
I check my phone for email several times a day (definitely less than 50) but I am an average user with regards to every day usage.
I am around Wi-Fi 95% of the time and so are most users, so I don't need or want their ($hitty & spotty) internet service.
My gripe is this: keep the unlimited plans for those who want it but allow those who don't want it to buy a cheaper plan.
The other thing that really p!$$#$ me off is the iPhone!
As everyone well knows, subsidies are the highest for the iPhones. And where do carriers recover their money, in the plans and contracts. I hate it that I pay money for services that I can never fully utilize so that others can have their iPhones. If iPhones were sold at retail without subsidies, we wouldn't have all the iDiots!
Coming back to your original topic: I'm definitely addicted. I need my phone and check it regularly for email, messages, clock, workouts etc.
I'm hooked and can't live without it now.
Ok let me start off by saying I have done extensive digging and still have not found any script or development out there pertaining to using this phone or any other as a tablet account from your provider. In my case for example I am using a tablet sim account with Telus Canada (2 month with no overage charges and 5 dollars a month !!!!!!! Promotion ends early Dec. When you sign up you get 2 months.) The sales reps at the locations for Telus are instructed to gear you into a regular telephone plan which are practically 10-20 times that without unlimited!!! You may be asking well what about SMS / Phone functionality. But I am sure most of you know that we can use SIP with decent codecs with our phone. Here in Canada I found a provider who provides unlimited SMS with the DID, SIP account.
Voila 5 dollar plan. Full LTE speeds in metro locations ( here in Burnaby BC I am getting up to 45 Mbps D and 15 Mbps U !!! Serious speeds with no data cap. !!! Having just moved here we haven't even needed more than the portable hotspot for the entire last month. !!! Crazy Huh:cyclops:... :laugh: Well at least it was for me having just finished moving across Canada from Ontario in a 16 foot moving van toeing my car full of stuff behind that. Using the plan with great coverage and speeds everywhere except Banff Alberta in the mountains...
------------- ------------- -------- BUT ------------ -------------- ------------
there is one HUGE catch to this, if you use the default APN settings for Telus (sp.telus.com):crying::crying: DANGER DANGER instead of (isp.telus.com) that one character being the only difference and you are considered a mobile PHONE not TABLET, you will be charged 1 dollar a megabyte, a dollar for a text and like 50 cents a minute phone calls!!!! This is especially bothersome when you flash a new rom as the phone resets the entire apn config to whatever the dev. put there most of the time isp.telus.com has been there (blackstar rom, paranoid android, and other builds of JB and ICS) BUT sp.telus.com is selected and the isp on toggled off. When you install most roms you want your sim in for first boot and it's a real pain ripping it out each time as well doesn't matter anyways because if you have your apps in the phone it could cost you 28 dollars if it auto updated google chrome for example !! Also you want to be able to log in on first boot. Many times I have found a back door by opening the status bar and hitting one of the options to get me into settings and backing out to the full settings menu during setup. This is also a pain because of the high chance of crashing parts of the setup background services etc. AFTER ALL many developers are starting to recommend a sitting period of 10-15 min. ... "Ya but I wish I didn't have to sweat each time" ... I know very little is being transmitted but I don't even want to touch that other config... I also wish I couldn't even see my "phone number" or receive a call on it... All through sms compatible sip. Everything else is dead to me (joke). But honestly with LTE speeds like that a good voip provider makes it next to PSTN quality, perhaps even better with some codecs.
On 1 occasion i forgot while we were traveling the open road of the prairies, this resulted in over 200 dollars there goes any deal I had.
However the telus reps were happy to honer the plan and didn't seem to understand at the customer service counter how it got there, being that I have a shield right now (unlimited for a couple months,) well lets just say im back to 5 dollars for a great plan.
In the future however how can I guarantee I don't do this again!?! almost to risky when the shields go down... but honestly would be worth a shot if someone could right a CLEAN script which toggles apn settings in TWRP or CWM recovery. (I would prefer TWRP (seems way faster))...
However one thing that always stands out in mind is someone with the skills (im definitly not included wouldn't even know where to start!!) could design a simple rom with apn settings better VOIP integration (removing complete access to the mobile radio for anything of than data) ie, phone and sms are totally offline. Just mobile data or Wifi or airplane mode nothing else. This way the tablet plan which will happily stay under 50 dollars a month for serious LTE speeds in Canada and I would be a very happy camper.
Cheers to anyone who can figure it out and I would be happy to help out for some kind of legit exchange...
Thank you for your time.
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Verizon Wireless send new A-Key and AAA Password to combat flashing
So you know im in a wireless family.
I work at T-Mobile Corporate in Redmond, And my brother in New Jersey at verizon.
I personally use an optimus G SPRINT on Verizon Prepaid, Not that I dont like the T-Mobile speed, But lets be honest coverage sucks.
So the 1.5 to 2.5 MBPS nationwide I get on verizon is better. OK Back on point.
So my brother tells me Verizon is actively trying to combat the MIFI flashed to verizon prepaid, On mulitple fronts.
They have contacted ebay, and ebay sellers have been suspended.
And here is the one that sucks for all of us that use verizon prepaid.... They renew and send a new AAA Key every 4 to 7 days.....
And may also resend or renew the A-Key.
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
Sadly my brother said they are not doing this targeting phone users, Verizon is not stupid they know people flash phones.
But they are targeting JETPACK and MIFI users.
He says in recent weeks they have seen Prepaid accounts that are using over 80GB of data a month on these supposed GUSTO's
So naturally verizon is now cracking down, This is similar to what Sprint and Boost Mobile did with ERROR 16.
Just giving you a heads up, And to flashers who flash the MiFi devices, Verizon is actively searching Craigslist and eBay, One eBay seller is now being sued by verizon and they found him on Craigslist in Salem, Oregon.
Just be careful, I use about 15GB a month on my Optimus and dont have any issues, Beyond having to reflash the info using the guide above once a week or so.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
Hope this helps.
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass for sure...I have, let's say, X Amount of flashed phones around the country...and have been racking my brain trying to make sense out of it...and there's definitely theories all over the place but as this gentleman has described, the phones losing 3g is just collateral damage. I will say that less than 20% of my phones seem to be affected...I have found certain areas to be more troublesome than others, but if flashed correctly the data use doesn't even show up on Verizons side...but that's a different discussion all together. I've seen phones that had to have the data reprogrammed only once about 2 months ago & have not been bothered since, some that have only lasted a few hours each time it was done...it's completely up to Verizon at this point - I think they're rolling the keys based off tower output more than on a schedule though...if a particular tower seems to be sucking up a lot of data (because they can see it from an infastructure level) then they roll the keys on everything connected to that tower. I'm sure they're doing it on some sort of schedule as well, but the truth is, out of all of the devices that I have access to and have been logging behavior on, there is no real pattern at this point.
I honestly don't think they'll keep it up though after they find the heavy duty data abusers. Fiscally it will hurt them badly. As an example, in the past month I've moved about 30 customers from VZPP to an alternate carrier...I'm certain it's a safe assumption that I'm probably one of 10,000 (at least) in the US that do this type of thing on the same scale. If each of us move 30 accounts per month, that's 1.5 million per month in lost revenue per month that they're going to sustain just based off my estimate. That's not counting the 5 here, 5 there, couple over there, etc that are DIYers, etc. I'm guessing my estimate is probably very low...but for the sake of argument it's 1.5 Million in revenue a month that they don't have to advertise for, they don't have to provide tech support for, no customer service, no out of pocket cost except maintenance that they already do anyway. The network is still super fast & reliable, so they're nowhere near capacity obviously, so the beancounters at some point are going to have to evaluate which is the lesser of the two evils and I think the key rolling is going to be the greater. If my estimate is correct, that's 18 million per year in recurring revenue that they get on a total "no sweat" deal - I don't care how big a company is, you can't afford that loss.
It's also a safe assumption that they don't care much about the phones...I know, with my own infastructure knowledge, that given a month with their internal network and I could easily identify 80% or more of the flashed phones operating on it and remove them...considering they have a huge team of IT people and endless resources if they wanted them gone, they would be gone.
I honestly believe that this will eventually blow over as long as the flagrant abusers aren't shoving it in their faces and neener neener neenering them to death with the MiFi's which I've even seen for sale "No Bill" style on Amazon...
and people wonder why it's getting harder & harder to get answers, guides, etc from people that frontline this type of thing....hell I've seen laptops for sale on eBay with downloaded software & guides from this very site as well as others on how to flash "Item X" in a complete do it yourself bundle...then people that selfishly made a couple hundred bucks doing it cry because their stuff don't work anymore.
I figured out a couple of alternate ways to combat it very quickly, and some other solutions to keep people in the unlimited plans cheap but am afraid if I share it openly then it's just going to go viral and cause the same problems again...it wouldn't upset me at all if there were a more advanced "pay section" of this site for the serious people to share with each other & keep this type of thing under control. Just a thought.
androidjunkie71 said:
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass for sure...I have, let's say, X Amount of flashed phones around the country...and have been racking my brain trying to make sense out of it...and there's definitely theories all over the place but as this gentleman has described, the phones losing 3g is just collateral damage. I will say that less than 20% of my phones seem to be affected...I have found certain areas to be more troublesome than others, but if flashed correctly the data use doesn't even show up on Verizons side...but that's a different discussion all together. I've seen phones that had to have the data reprogrammed only once about 2 months ago & have not been bothered since, some that have only lasted a few hours each time it was done...it's completely up to Verizon at this point - I think they're rolling the keys based off tower output more than on a schedule though...if a particular tower seems to be sucking up a lot of data (because they can see it from an infastructure level) then they roll the keys on everything connected to that tower. I'm sure they're doing it on some sort of schedule as well, but the truth is, out of all of the devices that I have access to and have been logging behavior on, there is no real pattern at this point.
I honestly don't think they'll keep it up though after they find the heavy duty data abusers. Fiscally it will hurt them badly. As an example, in the past month I've moved about 30 customers from VZPP to an alternate carrier...I'm certain it's a safe assumption that I'm probably one of 10,000 (at least) in the US that do this type of thing on the same scale. If each of us move 30 accounts per month, that's 1.5 million per month in lost revenue per month that they're going to sustain just based off my estimate. That's not counting the 5 here, 5 there, couple over there, etc that are DIYers, etc. I'm guessing my estimate is probably very low...but for the sake of argument it's 1.5 Million in revenue a month that they don't have to advertise for, they don't have to provide tech support for, no customer service, no out of pocket cost except maintenance that they already do anyway. The network is still super fast & reliable, so they're nowhere near capacity obviously, so the beancounters at some point are going to have to evaluate which is the lesser of the two evils and I think the key rolling is going to be the greater. If my estimate is correct, that's 18 million per year in recurring revenue that they get on a total "no sweat" deal - I don't care how big a company is, you can't afford that loss.
It's also a safe assumption that they don't care much about the phones...I know, with my own infastructure knowledge, that given a month with their internal network and I could easily identify 80% or more of the flashed phones operating on it and remove them...considering they have a huge team of IT people and endless resources if they wanted them gone, they would be gone.
I honestly believe that this will eventually blow over as long as the flagrant abusers aren't shoving it in their faces and neener neener neenering them to death with the MiFi's which I've even seen for sale "No Bill" style on Amazon...
and people wonder why it's getting harder & harder to get answers, guides, etc from people that frontline this type of thing....hell I've seen laptops for sale on eBay with downloaded software & guides from this very site as well as others on how to flash "Item X" in a complete do it yourself bundle...then people that selfishly made a couple hundred bucks doing it cry because their stuff don't work anymore.
I figured out a couple of alternate ways to combat it very quickly, and some other solutions to keep people in the unlimited plans cheap but am afraid if I share it openly then it's just going to go viral and cause the same problems again...it wouldn't upset me at all if there were a more advanced "pay section" of this site for the serious people to share with each other & keep this type of thing under control. Just a thought.
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And your whole point is? This poor individual is trying to find some help and apparently he is not getting anything. Instead you should write a guide on how to extract more data from the Gusto in order to receive the new keys properly. It has happened to me before but speed increased after unlocking the phone. I was on the 35/plan before and it gave me the same error, it lasts for about 2 days and then error 89 shows up, sometimes a day, that was before. I'm unsure why they keep doing this and why isn't the flashed phone getting the new key automatically like the Gusto 2. There must be a way to make this work.
I'm still trying to figure out why Verizon is cracking down on flashed phones when that's clearly more customers.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Sprint code
I gota the error 16 code when I obtained s-off. Everything worked but text an call it took me to sprint. I just told the lady I did a hard reset to clear all my data. She said ok you r all set now have a good day. RT away text starting coming thru. I did read the due security with radio firmware. Someone else said it's just a way to log users. Idk myself I due know she ask no questions She already knew why I was calling.
so..mmm, where is the easy fix???
TechSoft said:
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
hope this helps.
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i have a vzw 3g phone wich i used to pull the data settings and i have the gusto in its package.
so what can I do... how does the easy fix works??
error 8998 unknown fix!
I USED A VERIZON 3G PHONE (a galaxy 1) I changed the esn/meid using dfs .
It went to the activation process.. no data
did factory reset.
Once rebooted I got 3g.
put it on the computer again and using DFS i looked and there was like 6 new PASSWORDS!!!
PAP, PPP, HDR AN, HDR AN LONG , HDR AN PPP AND The ones where the profile is edited.
i simply reflashed my d710 with the new info and got go sms for the mms.
Working good as usual
gigaferz said:
I USED A VERIZON 3G PHONE (a galaxy 1) I changed the esn/meid using dfs .
It went to the activation process.. no data
did factory reset.
Once rebooted I got 3g.
put it on the computer again and using DFS i looked and there was like 6 new PASSWORDS!!!
PAP, PPP, HDR AN, HDR AN LONG , HDR AN PPP AND The ones where the profile is edited.
i simply reflashed my d710 with the new info and got go sms for the mms.
Working good as usual
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Verizon changed again the passwords.... thanks to my fascinate i got everything again... but the flash doesnt work anymore with my d710 sprint phone... looks like verizon added more security..
im stuck using my old i500...
susy1990 said:
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
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I'm on the same boot, i keep getting error 89 and my phone is on roaming, unfortunately i don't have the donor
---------- Post added at 03:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 PM ----------
susy1990 said:
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
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TechSoft said:
So you know im in a wireless family.
I work at T-Mobile Corporate in Redmond, And my brother in New Jersey at verizon.
I personally use an optimus G SPRINT on Verizon Prepaid, Not that I dont like the T-Mobile speed, But lets be honest coverage sucks.
So the 1.5 to 2.5 MBPS nationwide I get on verizon is better. OK Back on point.
So my brother tells me Verizon is actively trying to combat the MIFI flashed to verizon prepaid, On mulitple fronts.
They have contacted ebay, and ebay sellers have been suspended.
And here is the one that sucks for all of us that use verizon prepaid.... They renew and send a new AAA Key every 4 to 7 days.....
And may also resend or renew the A-Key.
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
Sadly my brother said they are not doing this targeting phone users, Verizon is not stupid they know people flash phones.
But they are targeting JETPACK and MIFI users.
He says in recent weeks they have seen Prepaid accounts that are using over 80GB of data a month on these supposed GUSTO's
So naturally verizon is now cracking down, This is similar to what Sprint and Boost Mobile did with ERROR 16.
Just giving you a heads up, And to flashers who flash the MiFi devices, Verizon is actively searching Craigslist and eBay, One eBay seller is now being sued by verizon and they found him on Craigslist in Salem, Oregon.
Just be careful, I use about 15GB a month on my Optimus and dont have any issues, Beyond having to reflash the info using the guide above once a week or so.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
Hope this helps.
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that's not what the OP asked